Isaac Browne and the Electric Engine

If you walk down Spring Street any given morning, chances are you’ll see a blue Jeep parked near the bookstore. A cable dangles from the front grill, running through the grass and plugging into an outdoor wall socket. This is how senior Isaac Browne charges the batteries that power the electric motor he built that brings him to and from school every morning.

"You never really run out of fuel because you can just charge it anywhere. You just plug it into a regular wall socket, and the time during the school day or overnight is enough time to charge the batteries."

Browne told the story of his creation:  “My grandmother had an old Jeep, and we decided to make it nice again, so we converted it to an electric Jeep.” Browne, with the help of his father, gathered all the necessary parts to make his 1989 Jeep Wrangler run partly on electrical power. Day by day, they assembled the motor, transmission, batteries, wires and motor-controller in a rented garage space. “We installed it by first removing all of the internal combustion engine components—this is called ‘de-ICEing,’” Mike Browne, Isaac’s father, said. “Then we welded the new motor mounts and fit an adapter plate and coupler to join the motor to the original transmission.” After removing the original gas-guzzling engine, Browne replaced it with two battery boxes and the control board. “Getting everything wired up took a long time, so I think that was the toughest part,” he said. The motor’s electricity comes from LiFePO4 batteries that total 144 Volts and 100 Ampere hours, which is equivalent to a 100 Horsepower gasoline engine. “I took AP physics, so I knew a bit about circuits, which helped. We had some plans for how everything would run together,” Browne said. Apart from that, however, the father-and-son duo had no prior experience with electrical engineering or electric motors.“It was a project for my dad and me, and we went to the garage whenever we could, mainly over vacations,” Browne said. The project took almost two years to complete, with the Jeep finally finished this past spring. Before he could use it as a practical vehicle, however, Browne made some modifications like adding a rain shield to protect the motor in an effort to make the Jeep roadworthy. Since then, the car has been inspected and given the green light. Now that he uses it to get to the Academy every day, Browne charges the batteries during classes and when he returns home. The batteries have a range of 40 miles, although, one round trip to and from school is never more than 20 miles. Even without a fast charger, Browne said, “You never really run out of fuel because you can just charge it anywhere. You just plug it into a regular wall socket, and the time during the school day or overnight is enough time to charge the batteries.”Browne is still looking to make some improvements, however. “Our speedometer still works, but the RPM [repeats per minute] meter doesn’t, because you need to have something that measures how fast the motor is turning and that would be a bit of a pain. It’s a project for another time.” For now, the converted electric Jeep provides a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to the cars many other day students drive for their daily commute.